4 years U.A.E. engineering company United Mining Projects Corporation (“UMPC”) has announced plans to invest $550M into the development of the Rio Grande Sur brine project in the Catamarca province, Argentina. The announcement follows two years of negotiations between the Catamarca government. The investment will take place over 4 years to 2028, presumably when production…
Integrated facility Honda announced in April a C$15B investment into four plants in Ontario, Canada. Earmarked for operation in 2028, the integrated facilities will be one of the first of their kind. Honda’s first EV plant will produce 240,000 vehicles per year in conjunction with a cell factory in Alliston, Ontario. Feeding the cell plant…
Exploring DLE Lithium Energy announced it has executed a share purchase agreement with CNGR for the sale of Solaroz S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary with a 90% interest in the Solaroz project, located in Jujuy, Argentina. The total cash consideration is $63M, a roughly 70% premium to recent trading levels seen for the ASX listed…
Slightly relaxed ruling could be a boost for EV sales In response to strong industry and labor opposition to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) April 2023 policy proposal, the agency has issued a “final”, slightly relaxed ruling that could be a boost for EV sales in the nation. For model years 2027 through 2029,…
Electrifying transport and manufacturing sectors key to action plan Last month, China’s State Council unveiled an action plan aimed at promoting “a new round of large-scale equipment renewals and trade-ins of consumer goods” with the goal of boosting the economy and modernizing its industrial base. The policy push looks to incentivize both industrial and residential…
Forecasts, futures and inventories With hundreds of companies onboarded since launching our new EV Battery Lithium Monthly intelligence service in February, we are thrilled to announce the addition of several new features in April: Near-term supply / demand forecasts: Our supply/demand models correlate oversupplied conditions in late-2023 with observed price pressure. We see a reverse…
Price transparency After a bounce from recent lows, Australian hard rock lithium producers, responsible for half the world’s output, can take heart from a successful auction by world no 1 producer Albemarle this week, which should further underpin prices. The West Australian reported Albemarle auctioned 10,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate at $1,200 per tonne…
Weak raw materials prices, strong EV battery demand In the inaugural edition of the ‘EV Battery Lithium Monthly’ published this month, we analyzed the implications of the recent lithium price collapse, identified the likely sources of resultant supply shocks in 2024 and highlighted those bold enough to push through with expansion plans despite epic headwinds….
Greenbushes cuts spodumene output, updates offtake pricing Greenbushes’ JV partner IGO confirmed this week a much-anticipated sales volume cut from the world’s premier Western Australian spodumene mine. In response to falling lithium chemical demand and prices, guidance for FY2024 sales were lowered to 1.3-1.4 Mt (from 1.4-1.5 Mt) of SC6. Despite this, the JV remains…
Liontown back to the drawing board for working capital Liontown Resources announced last week the debt syndicate providing an A$760M loan facility have backed out, citing weakening lithium price forecasts from analysts. Liontown’s Kathleen Valley mine in Western Australia is principally an underground mine, expected to produce 600 ktpa of 6% Li2O spodumene concentrate through…
